New Years Day For Sake Brewing in Japan
The end of September, beginning of October is when sake breweries in Japan harvest the new rice and brew and bottle the new sake that’s been maturing since last spring, so it’s kind of the New Year for Sake.
Because of this in 1978 October 1st was declared “New Year’s Day For Sake Brewing” in Japan. 
Unfortunately, unlike many other designated special days in Japan this one doesn’t warrant a day off. 
Nama chouzou Sake
In sake brewing the fermentation (called shikomi) is carried out from late autumn through the winter and into early spring.
Then it’s treated to multiple parallel fermentation, something to do with saccharification (glucose is broken down into fermentable sugars) and alcoholic fermentation. Which sounds pretty complicated and apparently is very difficult.
This parallel process is unique to sake apparently.
The sake is then left in tanks during the summer while it matures into autumn when it’s bottled and the new process starts all over again.
Seeing as last weekend my family and I had a little trip to the local sake breweries (some of which I talked about in this blog entry about Sake tours in Hyogo), I’m going to be cracking open one of my recently purchased bottles and have a tipple tomorrow and I thought I’d give a brief guide to some of the different types of sake…
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Daiginjoshu (大吟醸酒)
The best and usually most expensive type of sake. This is where the rice is ground down so that less than 50% is left. It also contains rice koji (the mold) and water.
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Ginjoshu (吟醸酒)
Here the rice is ground to 60% or less. Can also contain brewing alcohol along with the rice koji and water
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Honjoszohu (本醸造酒)
White rice ground to 70% or less. Usually has a mild and crisp flavour.
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Futsushu (普通酒)
Futsu means average or normal in Japanese, so this is basically your everyday sake, like a table wine. The taste can vary from brewery to brewery.
There are other types and divisions within these aswell, but I’ll cover them another time.
Some interesting ones to look out for are:
Namazake (unpasteurized), Taruzake (cask sake) has a fragrance of wood form the wooden casks it’s aged in, Nigorizake which has a white milky appearance as some of the rice mash isn’t filtered out, and you can also get Sparkling Sake! (Which I haven’t tried yet, but will look out for it).
Some sakes to try:
Kara Tanba from Tanba, Hyogo Prefecture
Tango from Kyoto
Kamotsuru from Saijo, Hiroshima
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Interesting and informative about Sake production.
Do have questions on aging.
How long does Sake age before it starts to break down?
Is there a proper way of storing for aging other than how grape wines are stored?
Of the 4 types, does one age better than the other?
Comment by Joeshico — October 1, 2009 @ 1:41 pm
Sake doesn’t age the way wine does, in fact your everyday sake doesn’t age very well at all and can become cloying.
There is a type of sake called “Koshu” that means “aged sake” but even this tends to only be aged 3-5years. It’s an acquired taste apparently.
As for storing sake, you don’t have to lie it down like you do wine, as there is generally no sediment in the sake. (Nigorizake isn’t completely strained of the mash so does have solids in there, but even that isn’t usually stored lying down).
It does however react to sunlight, so the best sake shops will wrap the bottles, sometimes in a fine cloth or I’ve even seen newspaper.
Which of the 4 types age better? Well like I said none of them really age well and the cheap “futsushu” sake isn’t worth hanging on to anyway. The more expensive sakes, the Daiginjoshu’s for example you might save for a special occasion, but I wouldn’t keep them for more than a year (well, in my house they rarely last a couple of months!).
I will say though that sake, once opened, does tend to stay drinkable a lot longer than wine. I’m not sure of the exact length of time, but I’ve had a bottle in the fridge for over a month and had a glass or two now and then and it was fine.
Hope that answers your questions.
Comment by MoIppai — October 3, 2009 @ 3:02 pm
Thanks Jim,
It answers my questions and will allow me, without guilt, to dump a gift box I have had for many, many years.
The ceremic cups and silver chop sticks that were included I will keep.
Comment by Joeshico — October 6, 2009 @ 3:48 am